Daily Updated Afghan News Service

Babies born to Muslims will begin to outnumber those to Christians within the next two decades, making Islam the world’s largest religion by 2075, says a study conducted by Pew Research Center.

The Washington-based nonpartisan think tank said in an analysis report published on Wednesday that Muslims are projected to be the world’s fastest-growing major religious group over the coming decades and in less than 20 years from now.

The report said that births to Muslims made up an estimated 31 percent of all babies born around the world in the period between 2010 and 2015, while 33 percent of the world’s babies were born to Christians.

The think tank noted that the pattern was expected to change across the globe due to the relatively young Muslim population and its higher fertility rates, leading to a projection that from 2030 to 2035, there will be slightly more babies born to Muslims (225 million) than to Christians (224 million).

It also said the birth gap between the two groups is expected to approach 6 million by the 2055 to 2060 period, with 232 million births to Muslims and 226 million to Christians.

The turnaround, as stated by Pew Research Center, will be largely driven by the fact that the Christian population is relatively old in some parts of the world, such as Europe, with death rates expected to rise in the years to come.

In a recent analysis early last month, the Washington-based research center also predicted that Islam would replace Christianity as the most popular religion in the world after the year 2050.